We had observed since a long time that Santa Catarina, a state in South Brazil, is a centre of excellence in amateur yacht building. Perhaps for the influence of the large proportion of its inhabitants who are of German origin, with their unequivocal talent for building things, or for any other reason, the fact is that some of our best amateur constructed boats were built there.

Four amateur builders had a meeting in Joinville, Santa Catarina. From left to right: Sergio Danilas, builder of a Cape Horn 40, Joao and Maria Scuro, who constructed this wonderful Samoa 34 hull all by themselves, Joao de Deus Assis, builder of a composite racing machine from our design, the Green Flash 33 Bicho Grilo, and Jorge Dias, who is building a Samoa 28 in his backyard that will be called Furioso (Furious). Courtesy: Joao Scuro

One of these centres of excellence in amateur boat building is Joinville, a town in the north of the state, where we had several boats from our design built there in the past, all of them within the highest standards of quality.

Observing the care the Scuros dedicated to building the bulkheads, it becomes evident that their commitment is totally turned to high quality construction.

Joao Scuro and his wife are the type of couple that rewards our work as yacht designers. Joao is a lawyer by trade and his wife is a retired civil servant. After long careers with lots of work and little adrenalin, they retired, sold their house at the city of Sao Paulo and bought a plot in Joinville where they built the shed shown in the photos, adding an extension where they made a room to sleep at night during the construction. Next they acquired the Samoa 34 plans and even though they hadn' t any previous experience with boat building, they dedicated their full time in the challenge of building their future floating home.

Can you believe that a couple of office rats with no experience in boat building could make such a perfect hull without assistance from anybody? Courtesy: Joao Scuro

So they planned, so they did! For the typical landlubber questions they made during the first stages of the construction, we imagined they would find some hard times in keeping going with their endeavour. How wrong we were! Interiorly they dissipated pure energy and commitment with perfectionism. And this is the way the boat is being built since the first day. The couple' s routine is one of early birds that endure long working days, with no concessions to leisure of any sort but the building of their boat.

The Samoa 34 interior layout transmits the feeling that it is the ideal boat for living aboard and sailing to distant places in comfort and safety.

With such radical approach, it' s no wonder that the work is progressing in a fast pace. The prize for having reached the present stage in the construction is being able to go for the coffee breaks inside the cabin, as an avant prémière of glorious days that will come soon.

The day that the Samoa 34 Brasas woke up in upside down position and in the afternoon was already a floating hull. Courtesy: Joao Scuro

When home building reaches this stage, fantasy and reality are hard to be distinguished from each other, and imagination go beyond limits, loaded with adventure dreams in the most remote corners of the planet.

Now the Scuros can already use the interior of their Samoa 34 as a dwelling, even though not as tidy as it will be in the near future. Courtesy: Joao Scuro.

The Samoa 34 class is perhaps one of our most popular ones. The boat is sufficiently ample and seaworthy to live aboard when sailing offshore while it is of an affordable price and within the reach of the amateur builder. The Scuros are not alone in their pursuit for the sailboat to live aboard. We have dozens of other clients who did the same thing, some of them already living aboard or accomplishing long passages with their yachts. One of them is the couple Dorival and Catarina Gimenes, who just completed the so-called Atlantic Ocean circum-navigation, having sailed from South America to the Caribbean, then to Europe and back to South America. Now, in the first days of June, they will give a lecture about their unforgettable trip, the highlight of their lives.